Disclaimer: I am a North Korea amateur and can only share what it's like to be part of a NK-bound delegation. Straightforward trip report here: no discussion of meeting details or intentions--just some informal observations.

Whatever they were monitoring for the government was too sensitive to show foreigners. They were instructed in every aspect of the visit, including their demeanor. Likely the penalty for breach of protocol would be death. In the USA they are called ‘data centers’.

7
posted on 01/22/2013 6:59:54 PM PST
by STYRO
(Hope you takers don't expect us producers to defend you. War sucks most for the losers.)

And don’t for a minute believe North Koreans, aside from a very few defectors, oppose this. They love their govt. The outpouring of grief and sadness when Kim Il-sung died was genuine. They weren’t faking it.

One problem: No one was actually doing anything. A few scrolled or clicked, but the rest just stared.

The probably had never seen a computer until that day and hour. Just a bunch of privates from the military dressed in civilian garb. After the visitors left, they were marched out and it was back to border duty.

Getting into North Korea was one of the hardest and weirdest processes VICE has ever dealt with. After we went back and forth with their representatives for months, they finally said they were going to allow 16 journalists into the country to cover the Arirang Mass Games in Pyongyang. Then, ten days before we were supposed to go, they said, No, nobody can come. Then they said, OK, OK, you can come. But only as tourists. We had no idea what that was supposed to mean. They already knew we were journalists, and over there if you get caught being a journalist when youre supposed to be a tourist you go to jail. We dont like jail. And were willing to bet wed hate jail in North Korea. But we went for it. The first leg of the trip was a flight into northern China. At the airport, the North Korean consulate took our passports and all of our money, then brought us to a restaurant. We were sitting there with our tour group, and suddenly all the other diners left and these women came out and started singing North Korean nationalist songs. We were thinking, Look, we were just on a plane for 20 hours. Were jet-lagged. Can we just go to bed? but this guy with our group who was from the LA Times told us, Everyone in here besides us is secret police. If you dont act excited then youre not going to get your visa. So we got drunk and jumped up onstage and sang songs with the girls. The next day we got our visas. A lot of people we had gone with didnt get theirs. That was our first hint at just what a freaky, freaky trip we were embarking on

The probably had never seen a computer until that day and hour. Just a bunch of privates from the military dressed in civilian garb. After the visitors left, they were marched out and it was back to border duty.

This is most likely true. Another video on the web from a British tourist that managed to get to NK on a tour showed something similar. He and his party were taken to a restaurant. The group, about ten people, were the only people in the restaurant. In order to try to make it less weird, the restaurant staff made food enough for every seat in the room, and served it, to a nearly empty restaurant, as if they were waiting for a large party to show up. But no one else ever came.

This is probably the same thing. They needed a data center, so they put some computers in a room, turned them on, and got some people to sit there pretending to work.

Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.